[tayete]

It is in Spanish, but the graphics are quite nice, so maybe you can follow the steps. It is interesting he had to think his composition knowing it was going to be horizontally flipped. He would have loved Photoshop or Painter!

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2004/graficos/ene/s2/rubens.html
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[Matt Elder]

That is kinda interesting. Would be nice to know the translation from spanish but you can't have everything. I'm not too sure he would have been too concerned about having the composition reversed. As a painter he was in such great demand that his workshop was churning out the work and he usually just did the oil sketches and a few finishing details depending upon how much he was going to get paid. That was of course in between his diplomat career trying to negotate peace with the Spanish (Catholic) and English (Protestant). Interesting character.
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See ya on da flip side
Matt
http://www.mattelder.com

[tayete]

Well, extracting the main info:

1.- He painted a really tiny sketch in oil of what he wanted.
2.- His team translated that sketch (via a black chalk grid) to a big wooden plank, where it was finished in oils too. He retained the "copyright" of the piece, though the whole studio was involved (quite common by that era).
3.- Once finished, it was translated again to a final oil over cardboard, using again a grid.
4.- It was sent to the textile factory (what's its name in English?) where they cut the cardboard in pieces and inserted them in the machines.
5.- The result was flipped as a result of that process.

It is interesting that Rubens himself only did the small oil sketches. The studio did the rest. A quite modern approach to the chain of production.
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